Stepping up to fight poverty for Anti-Poverty Week.

I’ve stepped in a lot of poo this year. Dog poo, pig poo, other people’s poo, on one particularly memorable night my own poo. It’s as disgusting as it sounds but, you know, poo happens.

For the past 15 months I’ve been living in provincial Solomon Islands volunteering with AusAID’s Australian Volunteers for International Development program. The program brings in bright-eyed volunteers to work with and help build the capacity of organisations in developing countries.

I step in a lot of poo because a majority of provincial Solomons is without things like electricity, phones, decent water sources and sanitation, which means the P.F.P (Place for Pooing: technical term) is often a designated part of the beach or bush. Often I go to these places at night. Often without a torch. You’d think I’d learn…

I adore my work because I’m passionate about development and also because I like lying in a hammock drinking coconuts. I’m pretty anti-poverty – like 99 per cent. And what I’ve learnt about poverty – other than wear shoes when you do number twos – is that in order to truly tackle it, we need to treat people living in poverty as the competent, capable, clever human beings they are. My program works from this belief, with a majority of us volunteers working alongside local counterparts. Often we learn more than we impart. But the focus truly is partnership.

This means taking a realistic view on how people will react when we deliver services. People are people so when you build a new school of course the kids don’t explode with excitement. Kids in the Solomons are like kids everywhere – they find maths boring, live for long weekends and LOSE IT when a bird flies into the classroom.

We shouldn’t be anti-poverty because we want to feel good about ourselves – do the Special K Challenge or get a daring new haircut if you want that. We should be anti-poverty because it’s the right thing to do. Because that’s the kind of world we should live in. We’re all just people, regardless of where you were born or into what conditions. And we all deserve to live in a world that nurtures and supports us.

Getting back to the poo, (‘must we?’ I hear you say), I’m glad it happened to me. (And look, with another five months to go, no doubt these little piggies will tiptoe through the tulips some more). It’s made me a better person. Because there’s nothing like human scat between your toes to bring you back down to Earth and remind you that we’re all of us just people, only some of us were born in a place with far greater opportunities and options than others.

So be anti-poverty. Be vocal about it. But be the kind of anti-poverty that is pro-people and understands that everyone in this world is capable of enacting real change, especially if we work together.

We can’t even begin to tackle poverty if we walk around pretending to be the experts. It doesn’t work, and eventually, someday, you’ll step in poo.

This week is Anti-Poverty Week (16 – 22 October). Anti-Poverty Week was established in Australia as an expansion of the UN’s annual international Anti-Poverty Day on October 17. It aims to increase public understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty and hardship around the world and in Australia; and encourage research, discussion and action to address these problems, including action by individuals, communities, organisations and governments.

Each dollar you give to the Horn of Africa will double.

More than 13 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in urgent need of food and humanitarian aid because of consecutive droughts, following two poor rain seasons.

On 5 October 2011 Minister Rudd launched the Australian Government’s Dollar for Dollar initiative, matching each dollar donated by the public to AusAID-accredited non-government organisations working in the Horn of Africa until the end of November. Australians are renowned for their generosity and this initiative will make the public’s contributions go even further. Now is the time to donate!

You can find more information here.